A/N: Thank ya'll for the wonderful reviews!
Double digits finally! Woot woot! More reviews as a gift for having two digits? Double the reviews for double digits? My goal is to reach 100 reviews by the end of the story! Help me out please?
Max's POV
"Max," mom said quietly, while Fang was trying to get Iggy to calm down again, "was he, um, ya know…?" She was very clearly having trouble saying it, but I knew what she meant.
"Yeah, mom. He was."
"We need to get him to a hospital."
"What?" I yelled, causing the others to look over at me. I lowered my voice before I started to speak again. "What do you mean a hospital? What can they do for him that you can't? And won't they freak when they see the wings?"
"Yes, they probably will 'freak' when they see his wings," said my mom, "but, we can explain that to one of the doctors and make sure he, or more likely she, understands what's going on and the need for privacy. We have to take him, because we need to know if he has an STD or is hurt worse than we can tell. Also, he'll need therapy, none of which any of us are qualified to give him."
I reluctantly nodded, realizing she had a point but not liking it one bit.
"Fang?" I asked, "is he calmed down at all?" Fang nodded. "Ok then. Get him in the car. We're taking Iggy to the hospital."
Fang looked confused, but nodded nonetheless, and guided Iggy over to Mom's car, followed by Mom, who got in the driver's seat.
I went to the rest of the Flock and Ella to tell them what we doing.
"Guys!" I said to get their attention, "we're taking Iggy to the hospital. No questions asked. He needs this, so let's go!" I turned on my heel and everyone else followed to pile into my mom's large SUV.
The car seated exactly eight, with Mom and Iggy in the front (so he wasn't touching anyone), Angel, Fang, and I in the middle, and Nudge, Ella, and Gazzy in the very back.
My mom drove us to the hospital, breaking speed limits the whole way. Iggy didn't seem too happy when we pulled up in front, but he remained silent and exited the car. I was really beginning to worry about him not speaking or arguing. I figured once we got back home, everything would magically become better. Ridiculous, I know, but for the longest time our only goal was rescue Iggy and get him back home. Now, there was more to it.
We walked (well, jogged) up to the entrance of St. John's hospital and went up to the lady at the front.
"What seems to be the problem? Or are you visiting someone?" she asked, getting straight to the point. I suppose you kinda had to be at a hospital, where wasting time could get a person killed.
"My son was raped about two weeks ago," she said bluntly. "We thought it best to bring him in."
"Oh, the poor darling!" said the woman. "Here, I'll call down Dr. Reid for you. She's experienced with this kind of thing. You can wait in room 314."
She had mom fill out some paperwork and then called over a nurse to guide us to the room and we eventually ended up on the 3rd floor of the pediatrics ward in an exam room with one of those uncomfortable metal beds with a piece of giant paper over it.
We sat in there forever before a female doctor with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and green eyes walked in.
"Hello. I'm Dr. Reid. You must be James?" she asked looking over at Iggy who was sitting on an exam bed hugging his knees with Fang next to him.
He bit his lip in thought for a moment before nodding that he was indeed, James.
"Excuse me, Dr. Reid. My name is Valencia Martinez. I'm James' adoptive mother. Can my daughter and I talk to in private about something important for a moment?" Dr. Reid nodded and guided mom and I into the hallway.
"Um, is there an empty room we could use instead?"
Dr. Reid looked a bit suspicious, but nodded her assent and said, "as long as you're not a serial killer, that uses this as their ruse to fool unexpecting doctors, sure."
Mom laughed lightly and promised that we weren't serial killers that used this as a ruse to fool unexpecting doctors.
She took us to a different room and asked what this was all about.
"Well, there's something you should know about my 'children'," started mom.
"And…?" prompted the doctor.
"Max," my mom said to me, and I guess that was my cue to pull wings out. So I did.
"Holy shit!" yelled the doctor. "That's something alright!"
"You can't tell anyone!" I told her fiercely.
"I-I won't. I promise," she assured us and I believed her. So sue me.
"We're telling you this so you know that Ig-James's heartbeat and other vitals will be different from most other people. Also, if for some reason he does need blood, it has to be from one of my other children. Normal blood won't work."
She nodded again and we left to go to where Iggy was.
"Hello again James."
Iggy nodded back at her, still not talking.
"Ok, James. I'm just going to check up on a couple things, and tell me if I need to stop. Do you think you can do that?"
Iggy nodded at her again.
"Good. Let's get started then."
She walked around Iggy doing a lot of medical-y stuff that I know nothing about. Every now and again, she'd have one of us do what she about to do to Iggy, to have something to compare to. A couple times we had to stop because he was about to have a panic attack, but Fang always managed to calm him back down and Dr. Reid was very good at what she did and touched him as little as possible.
"One last thing to do," said Dr. Reid, "I just need to draw some blood and get it tested, alright?" She led us out of the room and over to a lab area where there were the proper facilities to draw blood and got some from the inside of his elbow, before taking us back to the room.
"Actually, we do have one last thing to discuss before you leave. Do you want to run a rape kit?" asked the doctor once we got back to the room. Iggy tilted his head to the side and furrowed his brow to indicate he was confused.
"A rape kit is a way to get semen and ejaculatory out of a rape victim for forensic evidence. This late after the attack, it probably won't do any good, but we're supposed to ask. Frankly, I wouldn't recommend it. At this point, it'll do more harm than good. The invasiveness of doing this will more than likely trigger flashbacks and I think all forensics will be gone by now. But if ya'll decide to try it, we might come up with something."
"No," said mom, "we'd rather not."
Dr. Reid smiled encouragingly and said, "Ok then. Another thing we need to be looking into is therapy. James appears to be experiencing some pretty bad PTSD and I strongly recommend taking him into a professional.
"There are various types of therapy for PTSD. The most effective one for most people is called cognitive therapy. It helps develop an understanding of what's happened, and focuses on replacing emotions such as guilt with more positive ones.
"Exposure therapy is another one I would suggest for his situation. It focuses on helping the patient realize that there's less to fear from memories. It is based on the idea that people learn to fear thoughts, feelings, and situations that remind them of a past traumatic event.
"I think the last kind of therapy is not for James at all because of his reaction to sudden movement and touch, so I won't even suggest it. It is the most physical of the three main types and while it is helpful for some, it won't be for James.
"Another thing you might want to look into is family therapy so you all, especially the younger ones, can understand what's happened to him and why he'll be acting so different. Events like this are very hard on the family of the victim as well as the victim himself, so family therapy really is nice for large, close families like yours.
"The last thing I would suggest brief psychodynamic psychotherapy. That'll help with identifying triggers, coping with intense feelings, raising your awareness to thoughts and feelings, and raising self-esteem. I say no on group therapy, because of James's age and the severity of his PTSD.
"I'm also prescribing a small dosage of Paxil CR, which is an anti-anxiety medication that should help with some of the symptoms. Mind you, it will only target the symptoms. The therapy and time is the only thing that will really help. Do you have any questions?"
We all shook our heads not able to think of anything she hadn't covered in her speech.
"Let me get you a list of good therapists from around the area that you can see. And James," she said addressing Iggy. He looked up to meet her green eyes.
"If you don't feel comfortable with one the therapists you see after a few sessions, tell someone and you can try and find one you're more comfortable to talk with. In fact, if you ask, most of the people you talk to will allow you to come in for a trial period, or come up the office and meet them before deciding who you want to see. Alright?"
Iggy nodded. "Ok, good. Let me go make up that list and get your lab results and if everything's clean, you're free to go."
We waited in the exam room, all joking around and making small talk (except Iggy, of course) until Dr. Reid came in and announced that everything was good and gave the list of therapists to speak to and were finally able to leave the hospital. I really hate hospitals.
Yay! Chapter ten is DONE!
I'm not really sure how long it takes for lab results on STD's to come in take and I know that usually it takes longer than that to get into a hospital if you're not dying right there, but for the sake of the plot, let's say I'm right.
Thank ya'll for reading! Not a very exciting chapter, but it was necessary.
Review please?